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Talk:Education-planks-GOP2008
The 2008 Platform Committee received public input through a website. Ultimately more than 13,000 comments were received and considered. The following is a sampling of those comments: (Ken Kay, P21 - Tucson, AZ) SOBffEPCIsY Ken Kay says create a partnership between business and education community. Partnership for 21st Century Skills (Nicholas - Las Vegas, NV) jWBO8VZi9x4 Universities are filled with liberals. (America Forward And - New York, NY) aSD3Pw21RZQ Computers for Youth Comments (Frances - Brighton, CO) I have heard reports of schools that have been turned over to private enterprise and the result has been very sucessful. I believe that parents that choose to send their children to private schools or home teach their children should be granted a deduction on their income tax. I bellieve that private and home school children should have to be tested on a yearly basis with the same testing required by the public schools to maintain the tax credit. That would create a supply and demand in the public school system. Each would be competeing for excelence to maintain their tax credit or student funding. (Kenneth - Columbia, SC) Testing students is something that needs to be done. However, the results from these tests mean nothing unless teachers can use them to make corrections to the teaching methods. Tests in my state are taken at the end of the school year and released at the beginning of the next year. This type of testing does nothing for the students or teachers. The object of these tests should be to ensure that our students are learning the content. (Jim - Des Moines, IA) Too many of our young people today are clueless when it comes to US History and basic economics. If you don't know the history of our great country how can you love and defend it? As to economics, I know the educational system has done a poor job when I hear people say that the best way to get oil prices down is with price controls! Absolutely the worst thing that you could do. Price controls have never worked and in fact only serve to make the situation worse. (Annie - Medford, OR) I'm tremendously concerned about California requiring Home Schooling parents to now have a teaching degree. It appears that the reasoning behind such a requirement is to eliminate a families ability to train up a child with a Biblical World View. It obviously has nothing to do with whether or not the parents are qualified to teach as all home school children are required to take state testing and evaluation each year. I hope that this is not being taken lightly as our public education surely is not affording any of our children the opportunity to even examine a Biblical World View. It is vital that the State and Public School systems NOT be allowed control over the minds of our children and young adults. Thank you so much for all that you are doing in behalf of the American Family. Sincerely, Annie Sorensen (Ira - St. Louis, MO) The GOP should focus on enabling wider access to private schools and homeschooling. Government-run schools have failed in practice and are a bad idea in principle (they have always been at grave risk of becoming indoctrination centers). The GOP should underscore its commitment to univeral education, and that its support for private schools and homeschooling ensures the competition that inevitably leads to improved performance. (Bob - North Las Vegas, NV) There should always be a competitive alternative to the public school system. That means a private school alternative. I believe in a voucher program. School aged children should be required to attend a private or public school classroom environment. I am essentially opposed to home schooling. I believe it is usually in the best interest of the child and the nation, for children to be engaged in the multi educational and multi social interactions that take place in the school world. (Joy - Cash, TX) I believe we should support both wind and solar energy development. As T.Boone Pickens has shown, wind is a viable source and with the ability to store electricity just on the horizon, we should surely support development in this area. As the American people are tasked to develop solar and wind projects in this generation, the affordability will follow. This type of energy, wind and solar could very well be our greatest humanitarian effort for the future of our country and other countries .If T.Boone is outsourcing away from oil, we must be running low. Find better ways with wind and solar and create more jobs in the process. (James - Snowflake, AZ) The federal Government needs to withhold any current monetary assistance to colleges and universities not allowing recruitment activities on their campuses. On another issue, all colleges and universities now receiving Federal monetary assistance should be required to publish in their brochures whether or not they uphold the Constitution of the United States and the Bill of Rights. (Derek - Alexandria, VA) Shouldn't there be a way to tie federal aid to schools to the level of their endowments? It seems that universities increase tuition while simultaneously increasing endowments and, as a result, the middle class gets squeezed tighter and tighter. (Eva - Victoria, TX) I want more affordable tuition for American citizens for colleges and universities. We need to invest more into the American youth and promoting secondary education for everyone to improved their way of life. I am against “in state” tuition for illegal's or non citzens. I again believe it is wrong to reward people who break the laws and are here illegally. There are middle class Americans who can not afford the college and university tuition but are still trying to work hard to send their kids to college...why are we not helping them? If we had more affordable college choices and tuition maybe then more Americans would go to or even go back to college. Our economy depends a lot on the education of our youth and society. Make it affordable. (David - Honolulu, HI) Should the government continue to test students in reading and math? Yes, we need to be able to find the schools that are failing with an objective national test. This means the test should only be multiple choice, because grading essays is by its very nature subjective. There must also be national testing for teachers in the topics they teach. Failure should lead to loss of certification and dismissal. How do we attract high quality teachers? By allowing them to remove problem children to reform schools. Once the discipline problem is solved quality people will consider teaching. Are schools' priorities in order? No. The only priorities that the public schools should have are to make a safe quiet environment conducive to learning, and to teach math, science, English, history, foreign languages, music, and physical education. As they are obviously incapable of teaching morality and ethics they should be banned from doing so, except in the most general terms of explaining the code of conduct based on the last 7 of the 10 commandments. That is why a private or parochial school is a better idea for most children. What is the proper federal role in state and local educational systems? The states have obviously failed in the area of education and the federal government must ensure that both the student and teacher performance are up to national standards in all states. Funding of education is a state responsibility.